Mid America CropLife Association Announces Its Young Leader Scholarship Program Recipients



St. Louis, MO - The Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) Board of Directors selected nine college students to participate in the MACA Young Leader Scholarship Program (YLSP).

This is the eleventh year for the program, which is designed to expose future agriculturalists to the crop protection industry and potential career opportunities. Recipients receive financial compensation, additional training for finding a job plus the opportunity to network with MACA members. MACA members benefit by developing a talent pool of future industry leaders and through the heightened awareness of MACA within the participating universities.

The recipients' educational focus is agriculture, and all are enrolled at one of the land-grant universities in the MACA region. They have secured a summer internship (2023) related to agriculture, preferably within the crop protection industry. Additionally, the selected recipients will attend the MACA Annual Meeting September 5-7, 2023, in Indianapolis, Indiana and speak about their internship experience and participate in the meeting with MACA members.

 
The recipients by state/university include:

• Indiana - Rachel Herring from Purdue University is majoring in Landscape Architecture with a minor in Horticulture. She plans to graduate in May 2024. She will intern with Studio Outside Landscape Architects in Dallas, TX.

• Iowa - Kelsey Henderson is attending Iowa State University and majoring in Agriculture Business with a minor in Marketing. She expects to graduate in May 2024. Henderson is interning with John Deere as a Marketing and Customer Support Intern in Olathe, KS.

• Minnesota - Nicole Koziolek is attending the University of Minnesota with a major in Agricultural Communications and Marketing and a minor in Product Design. She will graduate in May 2024. This summer she's interning at CHS as a marketing intern for agronomy products.

• Missouri - Sydney Stundebeck is attending the University of Missouri - Columbia with a major in Agribusiness Management and a minor in Plant Science. Her graduation date is December 2024. Stundebeck will be interning at Bayer Crop Science as a U.S. Row Crop Sales Intern this summer.

• Nebraska - Charlotte Brockman and Samantha Weeder both attend the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.

o Brockman is pursuing a major in Agronomy with a minor in Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Communications. She plans to graduate in May 2025. Her internship will be at CSS Farms in Kearney, NE.

o Weeder is majoring in Agricultural Business with a minor in Engler Entrepreneurship. She expects to graduate in May 2024. Her internship will be with Corteva in Lincoln, NE.

• North Dakota - Lahni Stachler from North Dakota State University is majoring in Crop and Weed Sciences with a minor in Agribusiness and Agricultural Systems Management. She will graduate in May 2025 after her internship this summer at BASF in Adams, ND.
 
• South Dakota - Tessa Erdmann and Ryder Mortenson are students at South Dakota State University.

o Erdmann is majoring in Agricultural Communications with a minor in Marketing and Public Relations. She'll graduate in May 2024. This summer she is interning at South Dakota State University's College of Ag, Marketing and Communications department.

o Mortenson's major is Agricultural Business and Business Economics with a minor in Commodity Risk Management and Rural Land Evaluation. His internship is with John Deere in the marketing department.

o Both Erdmann and Mortenson expect to graduate in May 2024.

After completing their summer internships, the scholarship recipients receive a $2,000 scholarship to assist with their tuition expenses.


Source: Mid America CropLife Association news release